Not what's next, but what's important (this week)

A look at the brand marketing and design stores that caught our attention this week, with an eye on what's important, not just what's next:

Brands are working to drive in-store purchases via location "check-in" apps. The potential for location-based marketing for CPG brands is "massive," says Pepsico, which launched a location-based marketing effort using Foursquare with retailers like Whole Foods in recent weeks. Ad Age has the story.

CPG brands can solve the obesity crisis, but, first, stop beating them
up. Former food exec says attack tactics by activists and regulators
elicit the opposite reaction than what was intended. Rather than penalize the
food industry, he says, create incentives for them to act in the public's best
interest. Read it in The
Atlantic.

Ad Age's "America's Hottest Brands" of 2010.
CPG brands are well represented in
this special report, which recognizes everything from the big
campaigns coming out of multinationals to the scrappy efforts of upstarts that
are breaking through.

Study: People get emotional when they "break up" with brands, sometimes commit to harming them. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research examines what happens when people turn their backs on brands they once loved. What's a brand to do to prevent such heightened emotions? Read the highlights here. Or dig into the full study here.

"Safe doesn't cut it anymore" ... Kraft makes seismic shifts in
marketing its power brands. The once-staid marketer breaks ties with
longtime agencies and experiments
with new smaller shops to invigorate sales, beat back private label.

Events

Flexible pouch packaging is the fastest-growing segment of U.S. consumer packaging. For 18 years the industry has been served by Packaging Strategies' Global Pouch Forum — the largest conference on flexible packaging.